Friday, September 14, 2007

COVER TO COVER: Hot Heroes


Choosing characters is a wonderful part of writing.
(Though sometimes the characters choose us, I think!)

It's always an absolute pleasure casting the hero in my books. As soon as I get an idea of his personality and looks, I tend to match him to an actor/model/sportsman/etc...
And then the fun really begins!

Doing a google search to find suitable images has to rank right up there with eating chocolate and reading in the bath as pleasurable activities.
Just plug in the name of the man you want to find in google images and away you go!

For COURTING CUPID, I had a fairly good idea of the type of hero I wanted. He had to be suave and gorgeous, of course, but he needed to be a little rough around the edges (eg. the stubble) which is an essential part of the story.
My first choice was David Annable (who stars in Brothers and Sisters) but he seemed a tad young for Blane and suddenly, Matthew Fox came to me in a flash of inspiration. And google images did the rest!
(That's David on the left. Pretty similar to Matthew, huh?)

These are only a few of the many pics I saved of Matthew and they really do encapsulate Blane: rugged, focussed, gorgeous...I could go on and on but you get the drift.
My advice in casting heroes is to create a folder and whenever you see a guy you think is potential hero material (eg. film, TV, magazine) do a search and save the pics there and then. That way, you'll always have an inspirational hero just waiting to leap into your story!
This can also have the advantage of getting the creative juices flowing if you don't have a story: in PRINCESS AUSTRALIA, the entire story sprang from an expression on a guy I'd never heard of before (Adrian Grenier, from Entourage fame.)

So go out there and find your hot hero.
Trust me, he's ready to leap into a story coming to you soon...

Anyone have a recurring favourite potential hero? ie. pics you've saved but haven't used yet?
I have quite a few stashed away!!!

3 comments:

Natasha Oakley said...

Matthew Fox is gorgeous. I do think you should post a picture a day. That would be so very ... er ... cheering.

As for recurring hero inspiration - you know I don't. I've never successfully cast any of my heroes. Again I have tried. You, Ally and Trish are very pursuasive, but mine always seem to be a composite. Just picky I guess!!! vbg

Romance, Rumours and Rogues said...

I never used to cast any of my heroes or heroines either.
But it's such a fun thing to do, even if I don't refer to the pics very often while writing the story.
And I couldn't bear to miss out on all that searching the Net for sexy guy pics!!!

Ally Blake said...

Christian Bale. Without a doubt. He's been a specific hero twice but I could really cast him in each and every one of my books and be perfectly happy about it ;).

Ally